Skip to content 7 Basics - Get Ready For The Adventure Jun 1 · 47 min ...more
June 1, 2022 · 47 min · The 7 Basics
...more Show the full description Show less Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
613K followers
Beth Jones is a Bible teacher and founder of The Basics With Beth, a non-profit Christian teaching ministry dedicated to helping people learn the Bible basics.
613K followers
Embracing the Basics and the Adventure of Faith 0:00 Good morning everybody. How's everybody doing? Welcome to week number 8, basic number 7. In our 7 basic series, we are gonna wrap up today and with the Lord's help, tighten a0:12 nice big bow. And how many of you have been with us so far? You've been with us for at least 1 of these? Awesome, awesome, awesome. How many of you have been with us for all of these? Yay, that's so0:24 great. Thank you. Well, if you missed any, of course they're online and we've got some material available for you as well as obviously the book. So our prayer is that you get it. You guys know our text for the series has0:35 been found in Colossians 1 verse 29 from the message bible. And it just says this, to be mature is to be basic. And so it's true. I think we've mentioned it numerous0:47 times. Every athlete knows it. Every teacher knows it. Every builder knows it. The stronger the foundation, the more established we are in the basics, the fundamentals, the foundations, the stronger,0:59 the more mature we will be as a Christian and ultimately the more fruitful will be not just the fruit in our lives but the fruit through our lives to impact others. And so that's been the heart of the series and I1:11 trust that we're all getting it. I hope, if you know, among other things, I hope and pray that you guys have fallen in love with the basics. I've been teaching these things, these basics for1:23 many decades and I love it. I still love the basics. Every single time we get into it, I'm like, yes, they're so simple. They're so they're so profound. But yet in Christianity, the Bible says in Christ, there1:35 is simplicity. If in your Christian life it ever gets too complex, take a few steps back. Something's not right because God has made it very simple. It is profound and it's loaded with revelation but1:47 it is simple and basic, our faith. And aren't you glad? He has leveled the playing field for everybody. No matter your economic status, no matter your educational status, no matter your family background, no matter1:58 what country you live in, no matter what language you speak, God has leveled the playing field and he's made it simple and he's made it basic. And so I hope you love the basics. And all the people said,2:11 amen. Couple quick things I wanna tell you about, that are exciting. These happened this week. So it's just fitting as we wrap up the 7 basics. I got 1 in the mail and I got 1 via email and that is I got a copy2:22 of the 7 basics in Chinese. Isn't that cool? Can you see it? And so on the top, that is simple Chinese, simplified Chinese they call it. On the bottom, it's the actual official original2:34 Chinese. And so some friends of ours in Shanghai translated it and then sent us some copies. So that is exciting. And then also on the screen they'll show you, got an email from my sister and brother-in-law. They head up2:45 Rhema Bible Training Center and Rhema Bible Church in Mexico City and they had it translated. So actually I'll tell you the story real quick. Some folks on our staff who used to live in Mexico City worked with2:57 Rhonda and Tim, you guys know Kevin and Gabby Pilger. They translated it, the first draft into Spanish. We sent it down to Rhonda and Tim. They got it all finalized for their use in Mexico City and so they sent us3:09 this picture this week and they're gonna begin to use it in Mexico City. So it's exciting to see what God's doing and we're gonna talk today about faith adventures. Our last basic is get3:21 ready for the adventure. And I'll share a little testimony later on about the adventure I've been on as it relates to books and what God put in my heart and some things he told me to believe him for and I'll share that3:32 as we get into it. So expecting good things, good good things for all of us today. Last thing I want to mention is as we kind of get into some scriptures here, I just want to mention by way of3:44 introduction the importance of today's lesson. Because all of these basics, as I said, are so, you know, so simple and so helpful, but this particular 1 is going to help you put it into practice.3:57 In other words, all of this could just be the greatest sounding theory you ever heard unless you really get a hold of what we're gonna talk about today because today's message is gonna help you have the tools to put it4:07 into practice and really experience tangibly for yourself the reality of some of these things in your own life. Alright? So did we pray yet? Did I already pray? No? Yes?4:19 It must have been very profound. Let's do it again. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for the Bible. Thank you for the holy spirit, our teacher, our guide. Lord, thank you4:31 for helping us get the basics. And I ask you today, God, to give each and every 1 of us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you. Open up the eyes of our heart to know the hope of your4:43 calling in the glorious riches of your inheritance, God. Loaded up in your word, your inheritance for us who believe. We thank you for a good service. That eternal4:55 fruit would be the result of our time together. In Jesus mighty name we pray. And everybody that agreed said, amen. Let me just share with you, some examples in in my own life and this5:07 will set the course for where we're gonna go. How many of you know when it comes to living the adventure, this Christian life, it's supposed to be an adventure. It's not supposed to be boring. It's supposed to be5:15 exciting. And, there is this adventure piece to it. And what happens is in our Christian life, we all come to crossroads. We all come to these marked moments. We all come to these line in the sand moments5:27 where we get to choose. God will never force us. He'll bring us to these moments and then we get to decide which way are we gonna go. And it's imperative, it's critical that you choose the right direction when you reach5:37 those particular spots. And I know in my own life, after I became a born again Christian, my the first marked moment, the first crossroads so to speak, that I5:49 remember coming to it was the summer of 19 79. Actually the very first crossroad was inviting Jesus to be the Lord of my life and I'll talk about that at the very end of the service. And that was in 19 78. How6:01 many of you were not even born in 19 78? Really?6:07 Like I said at the first service, we got6:09 a bunch of punks in this place. So how many of you were born before 19 78? My people. So anyways, it was 19 78 and Jesus6:20 became the Lord of my life. And so then the very next crossroad, that you know line in the sand moment was the summer of 19 79. I was on a summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ. We were out in New Hampshire and6:32 being discipled and doing some beach evangelism. And it was that summer that God brought me to 2 crossroads. The first 1 was making the decision and I remember it definitively and I hope that for some of you today6:44 is that crossroads for you. That that particular summer, I remember definitively making a decision that from that moment on, I was going to base my life on God's word. I was6:56 going to put my faith in God's word. This would be the standard, the plumb line for all the future decisions of my life. If God said it, I can believe it. He is not a man that he should lie and so I can7:08 trust God, I can trust his word and this is gonna be the plumb line. And from that moment on, I haven't done it perfectly, but from that moment on, this has been the plumb line for my life. Just live by faith in7:19 God's word. That was huge. That's a big 1 and it's 1 you have to do intentionally. You know, a lot of us have been in church for a long time but I hope if you haven't already made that decision that you do today. I hope7:31 you say, okay, God, I'm gonna live by faith. From here on out, I'm taking you at your word. Teach me. Show me. That was huge for me, monumental for the whole rest of my life. Second thing that happened that summer was I7:43 began to get a hold of this idea of living my life in light of eternity, living from the eternal perspective instead of the temporal perspective. Up until that time, I'd lived my whole life7:55 from the temporal perspective. What could I get? What could I do? What could I learn? What could I accomplish? What could I accumulate? Who could I know? Who could be my friends? Where could I shop? I mean, it was just8:05 all temporary stuff and it wasn't bad, it was just temporary. But that summer, I got a glimpse of eternity and then God began to challenge me, would I invest my life into eternal things? Would I live8:17 from the eternal perspective, my temporary life which the bible calls a vapor, would I invest my vapor into the eternal things that really mattered and will matter for eternity or8:29 did I wanna live my 70, 80, 9100 years on earth, my temporary life? Did I wanna live that just for temporal things? And so that summer, I made a decision. I said, God, I don't even know what this means, but all I know8:41 is this. Help me to live my life in such a way that I'm living from the eternal perspective, making decisions based on what benefits eternity, not just what benefits the temporary.8:53 And so that's a whole another series. But those were huge, those were big monumental moments in my life that took me on this adventure. We're talking in basic number 7: Get ready for the adventure.9:05 Then it was the fall of 19 79, that same year, came back from school from the summer project, I was in college here at Western, and it was that fall. I was a biology major. I wanted9:17 to be a dentist and it was that fall that my bible study leader from Campus Crusade for Christ sat in my dorm room and she began to share with me some scriptures. And when she got to Romans chapter 10 that talked9:29 about preaching the gospel and how shall they hear and how shall they call on the Lord unless they hear and how can they hear without a preacher and how beautiful are the feet of those who are sent. As she's reading the9:39 scripture to me in my dorm room that day, I felt like God spoke to my heart and said, I interrupt your life to bring you a very important message. You are not gonna be a dentist. You're gonna be a preacher. You're gonna9:50 preach my word. You're gonna take the gospel to people that don't have it. And again, I didn't know what that meant. I didn't even know what a calling meant. I was raised as a Catholic. So the only thing I knew about10:00 anything that girls did in a calling was a nun. And God bless the nuns, but I was not gonna be a nun. So I didn't even know what it meant. I just knew God was calling me. There was10:11 a crossroads. It was a line in the sand moment and it took me on the adventure. I mean, you have to respond to those things. You have to say yes to the Lord. And so in that season, again, I didn't know what it meant but10:22 I said, Yes, Lord. Whatever that means, let's go. Let's do it. And in the process, he changed my major, changed my school. I mean, a lot of things changed. When you get on this adventure, things aren't gonna remain the10:34 same and all the people said, things will not remain the same. There'll be excitement. There'll be challenges. There'll be persecution. And all the people said,10:46 so I made some decisions there in that particular season of life. And then the fourth line in the sand that happened, all this happened within a couple of years, was in the summer of 19 81. Summer of 1910:58 81, I'd been a born again Christian, you know, made these decisions, living for the Lord, feel called to the ministry, but I felt I was really thirsty for for the Lord and for more of what he had and I knew I needed more11:07 power in my Christian life. And it's a long story, but in the process of time, I came to understand that the Holy Spirit lived within me, but I needed the Holy Spirit to come upon me. I needed more power of the Holy11:19 Spirit and I began to understand and learn about being filled with the spirit. And that was a line in the sand season. It changed the trajectory of my Christian life. It opened up a vista to a whole new dimension of my11:30 Christian life. It took me on another adventure with God and really it continues to this day. And I'm speaking to the choir in some ways. Many of you have also experienced these kinds of moments. Others of you, you're in11:41 different places in your walk with the Lord. But the point is this, God will bring you to these crossroads, these marked moments, and what you do with them is huge and it'll change the direction11:53 of your life for the good if you say yes to the Lord. So in chapter 7, the seventh basic, we talk about 4 things that this adventure involves. If you'll turn in your bibles12:05 to first Corinthians 1 9. Let's look at this. First Corinthians 1 9, he says here, God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with12:17 us the life of his son and our master, Jesus Christ. He will never give up on you, never forget that. God's the 1 that got you started in this spiritual adventure. It is an adventure. And12:29 he'll never give up and he'll be with you all the way. And there are a lot of components that go into this adventure. And in basic number 7, we talk about 4. We talk about living by faith, this faith adventure. Number 2,12:40 we talk about following the guide, being empowered by the Holy Spirit. Number 3, we talk about you've gotta be a tough cookie. You've gotta be the kind of person, if you're gonna take an adventure, you gotta be ready for12:51 some battle. You gotta have some grit. You gotta have some determination. Being a Christian is not for wimps, it is not for pansies, It is not for weak people. You've gotta be a strong person and you gotta have a will13:02 that says, Yes, Lord, yes. And number 4, we talk about you gotta wear the right garments and the garment the Bible tells us to wear for this adventure is the garment of love. You gotta put13:14 on the attire of walking in love. So those are the things we cover in this chapter, but we're only gonna hit up on the first 1 because of time. We're gonna talk about the faith adventure because all the other ones sort13:24 of stem out of that. Doing this whole thing by faith. Alright, so before we get too far into it, I want you to take a look at a video. This is a video clip. It's a great analogy, a great metaphor for what we're talking13:36 about. Who's ever heard of a thing called the slack line? Anybody? I just recently found out about it. It's crazy. It is cray zee what these guys do but it's such a great picture of this life13:48 of faith walking by faith and not by sight. So let's take a look at this video, alright?13:59 Everything's telling you not to walk. It feels like, an explosion going off in your mind, and and,14:11 you gotta just breathe. You're kinda going against your your primal instinct, you know? And, it takes everything you have. Like, you can't just get out there and not be scared.14:49 You really can't kid yourself when you're sitting up, you know, a couple hundred feet above the ground. You might as well take a look down and, try to take in the situation.15:07 It's not about eliminating fear. It's about finding the courage within the face of fear is what matters the most.15:20 And then, really, it's just your ability. Stand up and put 1 foot in front of the other. Kinda like how you should do everything else in life.15:38 Isn't that wild? Kids do not try this at home. But isn't that wild? But you know that's such a good picture of the faith life because you're out there on the word.15:50 You're out there believing in the unseen, taking God at his word and it's very much like that and to some people it can oftentimes seem crazy. And yet you could see those guys had confidence, didn't they? They didn't16:01 look nervous at all. And that's how God wants it to be for us. So let's take a look at some verses here. Second Corinthians 5 verse 7. It says, For we walk by faith and not by sight.16:13 The faith walk is a proposition of putting your faith in what is not seen. It really has nothing to do with the 5 physical senses and we're so 5 physical sense dominated. So it's a16:25 big transition for many people to begin to put your faith in God's word, just in the same way a pilot has to put his faith in the instruments when he's in the clouds, but he really can't see with his senses where he's16:37 at. He has to trust the instruments. God's word is our instrument. We walk by faith not by sight. Hebrews 11 6 says, but without faith it is impossible16:49 to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Something about faith God likes. I'll tell you what, God loves17:01 faithful people. God likes faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. Why is that? Is it because he's so hard to please? No. It's because with faith, you can walk this17:13 faith adventure. With faith, all things are possible. With faith, nothing is impossible to them who believe. With faith, the sky's the limit. And when you and I live by17:24 faith and we experience all of God's goodness, listen, that pleases him. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. Why? Because with faith, you can actually experience the John 10 1017:36 life that Jesus came to bring. And when you and I experience the John 10 10 life, it pleases God. It pleases your heavenly father in the very same way17:48 that it does an earthly father. Listen, it doesn't do any earthly father any good to see his kids struggle. There's no earthly father that takes pleasure in that. There's no earthly father that watches his kids be all17:59 depressed and down in the dumps and defeated and disappointed and disillusioned and struggling Like all get out, there is no human father that takes pleasure in that. The human father takes pleasure when their18:10 kids are doing well, when their kids are using wisdom, when their kids are embracing life with a pure heart and a wise mind. That makes an earthly father glad. And do you think our heavenly father is any less thrilled18:23 when you and I live by faith? Without faith, it's impossible to please him. You say, why do I wanna live this faith adventure? Well, for a lot of reasons, but 1 big reason is it pleases the Lord.18:35 We walk by faith and not by sight. Go over to Romans 10. Here's the thing, many of you, you may have never connected this to that exactly, but you already are living by faith. And God just wants you18:47 to take it to the next level. He just wants this adventure to bump up a notch. Go to a whole nother level in your faith adventure because you're already living it. Romans 10 verses 8 through 10 was the18:59 beginning for many of you of this faith adventure. Listen to what it says. For salvation that comes from trusting Christ, which is what we preach, is already within easy reach of each of us. In19:10 fact, it is as near as our own hearts and mouths. For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God19:22 has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in his heart that a man becomes right with God and with his mouth, he tells others of his19:34 faith confirming his salvation. You're already living by the faith adventure principle and the faith adventure principle is this, it is what we believe in our heart and it is what19:46 we say with our mouth. These 2 pieces, these 2 nickels equals the dime of faith. What you believe in your heart, what you say with your mouth equals faith.19:58 And those of you that have already received Jesus as the Lord of your life, you've already confessed him as the Lord of your life, you've experienced this faith adventure. You began it. And that very same principle of20:08 what you believe in your heart, what you say with your mouth is the exact same principle that'll take you farther out on the slack line. Will take you into new dimensions of excitement, of20:19 fruitfulness, of fun, of adventure in your Christian life. All of the stuff we've talked about in the 7 basics so far will just be theory unless you and I begin to do what20:31 we're gonna talk about today which is believe in your heart and then say with your mouth. You know, I've shared before I was raised Catholic, raised Roman Catholic, and so for the first 19 years of my life, I20:43 believed Jesus was Lord. I believe he rose from the dead. I celebrated Easter every year with my family. We all got new outfits. I loved Easter Sunday. I20:55 was half saved my whole life because I believed. I believed my whole life. But it wasn't until I was 19 years old, sitting at a kitchen table with a bunch of girlfriends, and God had been working in my21:07 heart, and I knew I needed to make a declaration. I knew I needed to cross a line in the sand. I knew it was a crossroads, it was a marked moment, an adventure was about to begin, and I knew I had to21:19 confess with my mouth, I had to declare with my mouth to my friends at that table that day, Jesus is the Lord of my life. From this moment on, I'm a Christian. Because if I didn't say it,21:31 just like this verse tells us, I was just half saved. I needed to confirm it. I needed to experience the adventure of being a Christian by declaration. And just like many of you, man, the moment I said to21:43 my friends, I'm gonna be a Christian lying in the sand from this moment on, I don't even know what it means, but from this moment on, I'm gonna be a Christian, Jesus is gonna be the Lord of my life. I'm telling you,21:53 something clicked. The seatbelt went click. The square peg went into the square hole and then from that moment on, my salvation was confirmed. I knew that I knew that I knew.22:04 Jesus is the Lord of my life. I'm saved. Now, let's get on with this adventure. And you had the same experience. Maybe you never connected the dots, but you did the exact same thing. So then,22:16 sometimes we forget it's the same principle, the same faith principle that God wants us to employ because without faith, it's impossible to please him. We walk by faith, what22:28 we believe in our heart, what we say with our mouth, not by sight. Alright, so hold that thought. Go over to 2 Corinthians 4 13. Let's just get some more confirmation. The22:40 apostle Paul said this, he said, And since we have the same spirit of faith, he's talking about the Old Testament saints. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I22:52 believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak. This faith principle of what we believe and what we speak. Now here's the reason this is so important and you're gonna see it in just23:04 a minute because if you don't speak what you believe, it becomes theory. It just remains theory. Go over to Hebrews four:two and as you guys are going there, they're gonna bring out a demonstration for us.23:16 Gonna show you a little demonstration so this will lock in and you'll go, oh, I get it, I see it. Hebrews 4 verse 2 says, for indeed the gospel was23:28 preached to us as well as to them, the Old Testament saints, but the word which they heard did not profit them. Not23:40 being mixed with faith in those who heard it. In other words, lots of people sit in church, lots of people in the old testament heard the word. They knew God had promises for them.23:52 Even today, you know, many years gone by, lots of people sit in services, lots of people go to conferences, lots of people read the Bible, thank you, and they've got the word. It was preached to them, they've got it. But24:04 somehow or another it didn't get mixed with their faith and the result was it didn't profit. The result was there was no benefit, there was no experience of it, there was no adventure. What a bummer that would be,24:16 wouldn't it? Just to be to hear the Bible your whole life. Some of you been in church your whole life and it's still just as boring as it ever has been to you. That cannot be God's highest and best. You've heard the24:27 word, they heard the word. It was preached to them, but those who heard did not profit. It didn't benefit them in any way. What a bummer that24:39 is. Why? It was not mixed with faith in those who heard it. So what does that look like? What's the anatomy of that? Okay, so this little demo here24:52 will help us see it. This is a mixer. How many of you have a really nice KitchenAid mixer? This is not mine, just so you know. I learned to use it today. Praise the25:04 Lord. Okay, so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna put in the word, the promises, the word that was preached to us these last 7 weeks of the 7 basic series. The word we've heard for months and months and25:16 years and years. We're gonna put the word in to the bowl. Alright? We got the word and then we went to the conference and then we heard some more, so let's put some more word in.25:28 We got lots of Bible, lots of verses, lots of promises, we've heard it all. That's a beautiful bowl. Lots of scriptures sitting in the bowl. Lots of scriptures, lots of promises, lots of25:40 revelation, lots of truth sitting in our hearts. Yippee! But we're not eating the cake. We're not cutting the cake, are we? We're just looking at a pretty bowl with a bunch of stuff in it like a lot of us sometimes25:52 after we've heard a message. We say, well, what do you have to do? You need some faith. Okay, let's pour in some faith. We're gonna pour in some faith. I believe it, not only have I heard it, I'll tell you what,26:04 I believe it. I am full of faith. I believe what I have heard. Wow, I've got the word loading up my bowl, loading up my heart. I am26:15 full of faith and power. But how many of you know we're still not eating the cake? It's just powder and eggs and water in a bowl. It's just a bunch of verses and a bunch of beliefs sitting in your heart,26:27 but it's not mixed up yet. There's no way you can even eat it, there's no way you can even enjoy it yet. What do you have to do? You have to take the word that you've heard with your faith and you have to mix it. So,26:39 let's mix it up. Coming down. Alright. Let's mix it up. There we go. You guys see that?26:51 We're mixing the word with our faith. Pretty soon, we're gonna have better. Can you all see that? Doesn't it look good?27:03 Mixing it up, mixing it up. Give it some time just like in our Christian life. Faith and patience. Give it a little time. Pretty soon you've got some batter.27:16 Okay. There we go. Thank you. Let's give it up for our cameraman. So we had the word, we had some faith, but we had to mix it. Okay. Well, in the cake world, you mix27:27 it with a mixer. But how do you mix it in the faith world? How do you mix it? You mix it with your words. You mix it with what you say. You mix it with what you decree, what you declare. They had the word, they had the27:39 faith, but they had no profit in it. They had no benefit cause they never mixed it with their words. We'll see here in James chapter 3 and I'll give you some examples why this is so important as we wrap up the 7 basics.27:51 James 3, verses 2 through 6. He said, Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control28:03 ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. Big horse, little bit in its28:14 mouth. You pull left, you pull right, you can turn the whole horse, this little bit and he's comparing the bit to our tongue, to our words. You can turn big things around28:27 with words, with with a little bit. He goes on: A small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go even though the winds are strong. In the same way,28:39 the tongue is a small thing and makes grand speeches. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire.28:51 It is a whole world of wickedness, but it's used in the wrong way, a whole world of wickedness corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire,29:03 speaking negatively here, can set your whole life on fire for it is set on fire by hell itself. But let's turn that around to the positive. Do you know that with your29:15 tongue, faith in God's word, the promises, your faith mixed together with the words you say, do you know on the positive side, you can set your whole life on fire, on fire29:27 for God, on fire for the kingdom of God, on fire for God's purposes, plans, and pursuits in your life? You can, with words based on God's word,29:38 with the faith of belief in your heart, you can turn your whole life around. What are we talking about? We're talking about get ready for the adventure. If your life29:50 has not felt like an adventure, if your life has felt like a nightmare, you can turn it around. How do you do it? By faith. What is faith? It is what you believe in your heart based on God's word and it is what you say30:02 with your mouth. That is the missing piece for most Christians. Most Christians, you don't have to say, hey you need more Bible verses, because they're like, I know a zillion of them. Most Christians, you don't need to30:11 say, hey you need more faith, because they're like, I believe, I believe, I believe. For most Christians, what you say is, what are you saying? What are you saying? Let me just follow you around for 2 days and I can tell30:23 you exactly what you're going to experience because it's out of the abundance of the heart your mouth is speaking and you are setting the rudder with your words for whatever adventure you're gonna have. And what30:35 happens is Here's what happens. We're in the port, we're in port A, my current lot in life. And I really wanna get to port B, God's promises fulfilled, the faith30:47 adventure, health and wholeness, a mate, a promotion on my job, my kids to quit rebelling, my marriage to be better, whatever the port B is for you.30:59 It's the port you want to get to. But here you are in port A, you got all kinds of promises about your marriage, your health, your finances, your kids. You're dealing with fears and anxieties and depression, you've got31:11 promises coming out the yin yang on what God's word says about those things, and here you are in port A, you've got the promises and you believe them. But you're still in port A, you're not experiencing them, you are not31:23 profiting, You're not out on the slack line, it is not the great adventure. And so you say, okay, I'm going to mix God's word and mix my faith31:35 with my words. And so you begin, you begin to say words. God, thank you. My life is blessed, I am blessed to be a blessing. You've come that I can have life and have it more abundantly. My31:46 house is blessed, my marriage is blessed, my kids are blessed. You heal all my diseases, you forgive all of my sins and on and on. You pick whatever port you want to get to. What happens is we get out there, we start31:58 saying it and then we get out into the middle of the lake and our rudder is set but then all of a sudden here comes a storm. All of a sudden here comes a critic. All of a sudden here comes circumstances that aren't32:09 instantly turning. Here comes a doctor's report. Here comes a bank statement. Here comes a pain. Here comes a person, a contrary person. Here I am in the middle of the32:21 water and my rudder's set and I've got the word and I believe it and I'm mixing it up and I'm saying it and my rudder is set. But all of a sudden I'm facing some opposition and I get weary in well doing and I don't feel32:32 like exercising patience on this faith adventure, I just wanna walk back to port A. It's safe, it's cozy. Okay, so fine, it's not the adventure, but it's a safe little defeated cozy32:44 port. And God's calling us and saying, No, come on, get out on that slack line. Come on, suck the rudder, get out there. And when the winds are blowing and the waves are blowing and it doesn't look so pretty, you just32:54 hold steady, hold your course. You keep saying it. You have the word on it and you do believe it, just don't give up on your confession. And all the people said33:07 So let me give you some examples. Let me give you some examples. You know, just practical things. I mean, you could just go so many directions because each and every 1 of us has different things going on. There are33:18 different things and God's word is loaded with answers for whatever you're facing. And you and I can be both proactive and reactive. Because it could be there's things we33:30 face in life, you weren't planning on that today. You weren't planning on that happening today, so now you have to react by faith. There's other things in your life you can be proactive. You can be way out33:41 ahead of the curve. What port do you want to get to? And you can be very proactive with your faith and both are necessary, both are good. Couple of examples. So, this building is a33:53 fairly recent 1 and many of you are with us in this 1. So, let me tell you this 1. So, we're back at 9 95 Romance and we feel like God's saying, Hey, I got a faith adventure for you guys. There's this property on 250034:04 Vincent. You're gonna buy it. You're gonna build a big church next to the historic landmark cathedral that everybody in the Great Lakes area knows about and I'm gonna put a church right there on the highway so we can34:15 reach more of Southwest Michigan. Wow, that's an adventure. And so we're like, Yes, we got all kinds of scripture promises and all of us together, Pastor Jeff and I and the staff and all you guys, we34:27 believe God you are up to something big. And do you know we left Port A and we began to travel towards our destination and we hit some storms and some waves and some critics and some challenges and some setbacks,34:39 and do you know it would have been so much easier to go, God, we like 9 95 romance. Get somebody else to reach out these people. Would have been a whole lot easier.34:50 Listen, the faith adventure is not gonna be easy. It is a blast, but it's not easy. So we got the church gathered together and we'd have prayer meetings, we'd have declaration meetings. We'd be like, okay guys, come on,35:02 let's get God's word in our mouth. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So we believe that, that's his promise. Let's just say it, let's just declare it, let's just35:13 decree it. And we did for months and months and months and many of you did with us. We just held the rudder steady. Jesus is building his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it and boy are they trying.35:25 Jesus is building his church. What are you doing? You're setting the rudder. You're mixing the word of God, the promises with your faith. You're mixing them together so that you can profit. So that you35:37 can experience this thing. Amen. Okay, so let's back up a little further. Back in the day when we very first started the church, way back yonder,35:49 God gave us a vision in 19 91 to start a church that would impact Southwest Michigan. In that season, we had very little money. I was pregnant with Luke, Luke,36:01 who's now 1 of our worship leaders, which is so cool. And we met in a rented building in Richland. To start the church, we cashed in an IRA. We sold a Honda Accord36:13 and we sent out a letter to some friends of ours and said, Hey, we're gonna start a church. You want to help us? Donate. Yay. And 1 lady, 1 pastor's wife sent us 500 dollars And do you36:25 know that 500 dollars in that season was like 5000000? This was back in 19 91. And with a very little bit of money, a very little bit of seed money, we launched a church, we pioneered a church. And there was a36:37 season Now, we have a big vision, lots of promises, and we believe God's going to do big things. Sometimes, you know, it doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes you believe in God for things, it's going to take a couple of36:47 decades to see it all come to fruition with your family, your grandkids, your great grandkids, and all the dreams and visions God's given you. But you know we set the rudder, we began to say some things. Well, we came36:57 into a season where we lived in an 800 square foot cottage across the street from Gull Lake. And the key word is across the street because there was about a million37:09 dollar difference when you cross the street. It went actually to the lake. We could see it from afar. So we lived in this little 800 square foot cottage and there weren't enough bedrooms for the family. We had37:21 a car that didn't have enough seat belts for all the kids that we had at that time. And we're pioneering a church and I remember being really discouraged. God, you called us to pioneer. We are seeking first your kingdom37:32 and you said that all these things would be added to us, but right now it feels like nothing's being added to us. It feels like this is just a lot of hard work. And we'd stand on different promises. You know, we had the37:42 word and we believed them. But God got a hold of us 1 day and said, are you gonna keep complaining or you're just gonna start declaring my word? Well, I felt like, well, we're just gonna keep complaining.37:55 How many of you have ever felt like that? But you know, we knew better. We knew no against our feelings we're going to have to start declaring some things. So we read chapter 10 of Mark, chapter 10. I distinctly remember38:06 it. At this particular season, our little cottage, we called it the shack. And then from there we moved to the cave, which this is a whole other world of sermons. And then from there, we moved to the sulfur pit. So we38:18 were in the sulfur pit at the time. And God began to get a hold of us. And I remember reading Mark chapter 10. And in Mark chapter 10 it says, Jesus said to the disciples, he said,38:30 you know, Listen, whoever gives up houses and lands and brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers for my sake and the Gospels. Now you have to understand that when Jeff and I started the church, he was in38:42 business previously. He was offered a 6 figure job in Tampa like right before we were gonna start the church. The devil always comes with a really big carrot right before you're about to step into the adventure38:54 God has for you. He was about to move into owning his own lighting agency in Tampa, Florida. 6 figure income back in the early 90s. A yacht on the intercoastal.39:06 Come on, somebody. So, that was the thing that we had decided. We're gonna leave all that. We're gonna leave houses and lands and brothers and sisters and mothers and all. We're gonna leave all that. We're gonna seekShow more In this video 0:00 Embracing the Basics and the Adventure of FaithComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Grip Serving: How To Be A Fisher Of Men Beth Jones
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.